


Absolution

by AustinB



Series: Tumblr Prompts [16]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Daredevil/Karen is my jam, F/M, Secret Identity, obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 22:22:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5761102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AustinB/pseuds/AustinB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And how can she say those words out loud to him after just thinking them made her sick to her stomach? But there it is hanging in the dusty air between them. He doesn’t seem surprised, or disgusted, or angry. He looks almost serene. From what she can tell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Absolution

**Author's Note:**

> Wondrfalls asked for more Karen/Daredevil!

She tumbles through the hole in the wall, that had been covered by a deceivingly sturdy-looking cardboard patch, and barely keeps upright. With a murmured curse, she glances around the shadowed room, same as every other room in the abandoned warehouse that she’s been creeping through for the last ten minutes, except for the masked man standing in the middle of it, frozen in stride as if he’d been about to rush toward her but thought better of it.

When she blinks at him he straightens, opens his mouth to speak but shuts it again.

“Oh,” Karen says, because one of them has to say something. “I didn’t know anyone else was…lurking.”

“You’re the only one lurking here. I was looking for the plans for the Takata building, which aren’t here,” he says. A lie, of course. They’re folded and tucked into a pocket in his pants, but he suspects she might actually fight him for them in order to turn them into the police, which is both ill advised and would thwart his own plans for them.

She sighs, disappointed, her mind already spinning for the next step.

“You shouldn’t get involved. These people stand to lose a lot of money, and that makes them dangerous.”

Instead of arguing like he expects, she changes the subject completely, which doesn’t quite bode well for his pleas for her to remain uninvolved.

“I feel I should thank you, for saving my life.”

“It’s not–”

“Thank you, all the same,” she says, then tucks her hair behind her ear. “Even if I didn’t deserve it,” she says quietly. He may not have been meant to hear, but it surprises him enough he can’t quite help responding.

“Didn’t deserve? To be saved?”

“I’m not–I’ve done things. Things I shouldn’t have. Things I’m not proud of.”

“So have I. So have most of us.”

“No,” she says, shaking her head abruptly. She swallows hard and visibly drudges up her next words. “I shot–I _killed_ a man. James Wesley.”

And how can she say those words out loud to him after just thinking them made her sick to her stomach? But there it is hanging in the dusty air between them. He doesn’t seem surprised, or disgusted, or angry. He looks almost serene. From what she can tell.

“Justice isn’t black and white. Not anymore. You saved a lot of people by doing what you did, yourself included.”

Her temperature spikes and she takes an angry step forward, which is literally the very last reaction he expected.

“I just confessed to murder. Shouldn’t you be taking me to the police?“

“No.” He licks his lips and when he goes on it’s quiet but sure and almost knocks her off her feet. “You killed him before I could. Spared me the guilt you’re feeling now. I feel I should thank you.”

She has no words for that, and when he turns to jerk the window open, she doesn’t try to stop him. But once he’s out on the landing, he leans his head and shoulders back into the room.

“Just keep doing what you do. No matter what, it’ll always be the right thing.”

“How can you say that?” she says on a breath that she has to gasp for.

“Because you’re a good person, Karen, and everything you do comes from that.”

Then he drops out of sight, and Karen fights the urge to rush over to the window to catch one last glimpse of him. She’s not sure she’ll ever see him again.

The way he spoke as if he knew her and the timbre of his voice as it curled around her name is making bells ring in the back of her mind, but the connection her brain is trying to make is so preposterous she dismisses it before it’s fully formed.

As she slinks out of the building and makes her way back home, she feels almost absolved and very much connected to the stranger, like he took a piece of her with him; dark, heavy and freely given. 

Of course, a masked vigilante forgiving her for murder can’t cleanse her of it, no one but herself can do that and she’s not nearly there yet. But it’s a start. 

He’d told her not to get involved in the mess Nelson & Murdock have been looking into, but he also told her to keep doing what she was doing, because it’ll always be the right thing. She’ll choose to follow the latter piece of advice, obviously.

And maybe she will see him again, after all.


End file.
